Re: Origin of Demeter

> Falk & Torp
> "
> <toft> or <tofte>
> (danish = plot at a building, field near the farm outside the

village

> community, plot for the house), Sw.dial. <toft>, Norw.dial. <tuft>,
> <toft> "plot for a house", ON <topt>, <tupt> id. (loaned to AS
> <toft> "plot"). Word is identical to <tomt>, qv.
>
> <tomt>, Sw. <tomt>, O.Sw. <tompt> next to <toft>, with which the

word

> is probably identical; see <toft>. Germ. basic form *tumftô = IE

*dm.p

> (e)dâ, cf Greek <dápedoon> "floor, plot" from *dm.-pedo-, Lith
> dimstis "farmyard, farm" from dm.pdti-. The word is composed of

*dm.-

> weakest [zero] grade of *dem "house, building" (cf. <timber>) and
> *pedo- "plot, yard". The real meaning of <tomt> is thus <house

plot>.

> A completely different word is the verbal noun High German
> <zunft> "guild" belonging to Germanic *teman "fit". Further
> <tomte> "house gnome" [nisse] also <tufte>, <tomtegubbe>,

<tuftekarl>

> (<tunkarl>), Sw <tomte>, <tomtegubbe>
> "
> But why not *dm-pot- "master of the plot (or house)" for the

<tomte>,

> who is explained in legends as the soul of one of the previous

owners

> (corresponding to Latin Lares).
>
> I still think all the IE *dem-, *dom- words belong together. A

plot,

> before it could built on had to be emptied (ON <tom-> "empty") of

the

> foreign spirits living on it. If I could find a way to connect it

to

> *tom- "cut up, divide" I'd do that, but then I'd have to claim that
> the root was a loan into IE (which I believe anyway:
>
> http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/Adm.html
>
> )

And while I'm at it ruining the remaning shreds of my reputation,
from

http://www.cbold.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Docs/Guthrie.html
Guthrie's Proto-Bantu forms

-dèm- to cultivate
-dèmÒ work
(-dím- to become extinguished; to extinguish [?= to empty])
-dímò spirit
-dómÈ husband; man
-dómÈ male

Torsten